Pooja Nayak

I study the afterlife of extraction in South India. My work asks how distinct projects of value make environments. To that end, I follow people, places, plant and animal life at the crossing of economic and environmental security practices in Karnataka--and engage with the social worlds of residents, forest bureaucrats, and with science and technology practitioners, such as biologists, pteridologists, conservationists, and mine engineers. I am especially interested in nature writing and environmental thought in the Kannada language.

In 2021-2022, I am a Dissertation Completion Fellow with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH). My research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Center for the Advanced Studies of India (CASI), the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH), and the Penn South Asia Studies Department, among others.